Erasing Time's Tracks (Owl version)
Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This work of fan-fiction is not intended for personal profit. All characters utilized herein which are not creations of myself belong to J. K. Rowling.

- - -

The white snowy owl was sitting quietly in Eeylops Owl Emporium, looking imperiously about at the rather noisy lot of other owls flitting about and generally making a nuisance of themselves, disturbing her serene contemplation of the world around her.

She was, after all, a snowy owl, not just any owl. Such owls do not allow themselves to be perturbed by the outside world. It simply wouldn't do for her to be distracted by every little thing when her duty was clear: whoever she was to carry letters for had to trust that she would get the job done as quickly as possible.

A bit later on, an extremely large speaking creature with a kindly aura about him picked her cage up, causing her to ruffle her feathers and hoot indignantly.

The man said, "Eh, sorry bou' tha'. Jest buyin' yer for a little fella, real important little fella he is. But I oughter pay for yeh now."

After that, he plunked her cage on the table near the proprietor's box of gold coins, and the two men exchanged those funny golden coins those speaking creatures made so much fuss over. Not long after that, she was presented to a rather tiny speaking creature, whose gratitude and appreciation for her was extremely clear in his magical aura.

What was not commonly known was that oftentimes the choice of owl by an owner was dependent on how compatible their magical auras were, since an owl familiar had to be a trustworthy, dependable one who could respond to – and the very smart ones (such as herself, of course!) could even anticipate – his or her master's intentions.

Even though she'd been purchased for him, she still felt a very strong magical connection with the speaking creature that seemed to transcend a mere transaction of currency.

- - -

The black-haired speaking creature had announced himself as 'Harry', and had chosen a name for her: 'Hedwig'. It suited her very well, and she hooted in pleasure at the choice of name. The impression she'd gotten was that in Harry's language, a 'Hedwig' was a strong person.

She then remembered the first owl friend she'd made. It had all started when that brown eagle owl had swooped into her master's window, delivering that letter which piqued Harry's curiosity. The other owl expressed pleasure at efficiently delivering his post with a minimum of fuss, and without being observed.

Certainly he had meant no harm to Harry when he'd first delivered that letter, and the two had introduced themselves that day.

Magical owls were smarter than many of their owners gave them credit for, and if their communication were able to be translated into human language, that first meeting would be recorded thus.

"Who are you? I am Hedwig."

"I'm Zeus."

The eagle owl had occasionally returned over the course of Hedwig's time in the small bedroom, although it was certainly spacious by the standards of the place in which she had used to reside.

Zeus was startled to find out that Hedwig had only had a cage to herself, with no freedom to fly around her master's residence. Zeus had unparalleled space at his master's house, and expressed concern that Hedwig's master might be mistreating her in some way.

Hedwig indignantly replied that nothing of the sort ever happened, and Zeus had hooted a bit bashfully. Her master, Harry, had looked up at the pair of them, and after realising the two were just hooting at each other, smiled and continued doing what he had been before, which was paying great attention to the device he called a book.

Later on, the two owls had been brought to what the humans called an Owlery, after having made the journey by a moving vehicle called a train. The Owlery was a very nice, wide-open space where all the owls could perch, and be free to go hunting whenever they wanted, except for when the post was to be delivered.

Hedwig got into the habit of watching for the post owls, and swooping in with them to be near her master. It wasn't his fault he didn't get any post from anyone else, now that Zeus was with her at the Owlery.

This meant that Hedwig knew that the young yellow-haired master who often sat next to her own, was the one who Zeus belonged to. He had the same nonthreatening nature as Zeus did, with an added layer of protectiveness. Certainly her master needed someone like that after dealing with the strange round person and the strange sharp-voiced person Harry seemed to defer to.

She would greet both masters and then stand near her master, happy to be spoiled with the human food he ate and fed her. Zeus didn't always come to breakfast with her, but they would hunt mice together.

On one such occasion, it was nearing sun-down, and many of the speaking creatures, which she had learned called each other humans, were sitting on the grass or walking around.

Hedwig felt she could do with a few mice herself, and swept out of the Owlery, with Zeus in tow. It wasn't long before the two were paying more attention to their acrobatics in the air, swooping around each other, arcing into the air and in general not noticing the ground.

Only at the last minute, just before she was about to pull out of a dive, did she notice a delectable, brown rat scurrying back to Hogwarts. Hooting once to announce her intentions to Zeus, she zoomed down, the air rustling past her wings as she flapped them with all her effort.

Unfortunately, just as she was about to scoop the rat up in her talons, its frantic digging had gotten results as it scurried into a small nook it had made for itself, and her talons scraped uselessly along the grass for some distance before she irritably flew back into the air.

Only after having flown nearly to the area where there were human-built structures to snatch a few mice did Hedwig realise the rat's strange aura – it had been almost… human, like her master's.

Although she had gotten used to some of the idiosyncrasies of her master's people, such as Harry's shyness around the blond boy and some others near him, she could not fathom why they would voluntarily choose to look like rats.

Perhaps she would hoot at the rat next time, just to annoy it.


Author Notes:

This is a standalone one-shot set in the Erasing-verse, but I may add more chapters from Hedwig's or Zeus's POV as the main story evolves. I don't know that there's been many stories from owl-POVs and I thought I'd do this one. :)

Thanks go to Kirinin and Maddevillechilde for the beta work. :)